Kenny J Smith

My interactive performance video.

Unfortunately the laser projector wasn’t working how I wanted it to.

Here is my final laser projector, it’s a bit rough but mechanically it works fine. You can see the two mirrors glued to stepper motors, the laser is taped in position and the circuitry is at the back.
I tried out a 5mv green laser but I put too much power into it and it died, so now I’m using a 1mv red laser. A 3.5 mm audio plug connects to two analog input pins so that audio values can be interpreted into visuals.

I was experimenting with walkman cassette tape heads and cassette tape tape surfaces. The plan is to give the audience an object that contains audio that they can play alongside a band.

The cassette tape surfaces didn’t sound that great so I tried out magnetic strip cards (e.g. eftpos cards), the cards sound good and each card has a different sound. The good thing about magnetic strip cards is that most people carry a few of these cards on them already.

To read the cards information, I unsoldered the cassette heads and connected them to longer wire. I ended up using three walkmen and fastened the cassette head readers to a long piece of acrylic. The magnetic stip cards are now able to be scrubbed along the cassette heads and create some interesting sounds.

When I saw the VJ group Hexstatic in 2006, it was an impressive performance with the stage and screen floating in a lagoon. They were able to mix and scratch synchronised audio and video, there was a big range of visual material with musical, political and pop culture narratives.
It seems as though when we see a montage of different visual material edited together, we automatically look for the relationship between the material even though there may not be a purposeful relationship. Could the descision of choosing clips to be put together be made random and still produce imagery that has a narrative?

In this photo you can see the laser on the left side and an oscillating mirror on the right side.

The stepper motor is controlled by arduino via a ULN2003A driver.

The motor rotates the mirror back and forwards, previous tests with a servo were too slow but the stepper moves at a much higher speed.

When the laser is reflected off the oscillating mirror it creates these fluid forms.

The final projector should have straighter lines, for these tests I taped the mirror to the motor.

My initial concept is to create a laser projector that is controlled by audio data from cassette tape loops. The mixture of analog and digital media will make for an exciting experience.

Analog tape loops are an old method of making repetitive samples, this method has been replaced by digital samplers and computers. The advantage of using cassette tape is it is more physically tactile than using digital devices. This advantage is important when interacting with musical devices, a good example is the preference of a dj to use a vinyl turntable over a digital substitute. more about tape loops

The use of lasers to visualise audio is common but the visual result is usually forms made by curved lines. A common method of achieving this is directing a laser at some mirrors that are mounted on speakers. The difference in my project will be that the projection will a rectangular screen of monochrome moving image. While the picture won’t look quite as sharp as a video projector, it will have a unique look.

The laser beam will be directed by two mirrors, each connected to a stepper motor and the brightness of the laser beam will be changed by different currents. The two stepper motors will accurately point the beam of light in a horizontal and vertical direction.

The physical interface is made with an upside down optical mouse, with see through plastic on top and fake fur on the plastic. When the fur is touched or stroked, the optical mouse detects the movement. Another interesting aspect is that mouse light causes the fur to glow, especially when the fur is touched and the mouse comes out of standby mode.

The digital lion head morphs between a real living lion and the strange taxidermy lion, the layers are morphed one at a time when the mouse is moved. At the start it is the real lion and then it’s nose becomes worn, until the whole lion is changed, it than waits for a few seconds and changes back. Here is an example http://www.vimeo.com/1525028 

This photo shows how the display would look if it was mounted on a wall.

This is the final stage of the morph.

I have decided to change my concept, building a whole model of a lion was going to take to long and would also have problems with its durability if it was going to be on display.

In my new concept, the lions head will be on a digital screen and the interaction will be controlled by a simple touch pad. By using a simple device, hopefully the display will be more durable.

This sketch illustrates the display, the touch pad is made of fake fur and is where you would expect the lion’s body to be.

As for the head, I have been experimenting with animated layers of masked images, this gives an interesting 3d effect. To see an experiment click on this link- http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=-I2xSE06pVI

The retelling of King Dick’s tale is going to be based on the taxidermied lion as a memento and how with time and wear, the memorial to Richard Seddon becomes less realistic and more of a legend.

My exhibit is based on King Dick the lion, the first animal in the Wellington zoo. I am retelling King Dick’s story, in particular how his taxidermied body has deteriorated while on display from decades of people wanting to touch and pat him. To preserve the lions body it is currently inside a glass case, shut away from the hands of the public.

I have decided to create a model replica of King Dick that the public are allowed to touch, sensors and buttons inside it will control different video, images and information on a screen.

The first real-time media project uses a hacked computer mouse, so here is a link to an Accelerometer Mouse.